the_untermationfandomcom-20200214-history
Duel of the Vixens
Duel of the Vixens is a story written by the wiki founder. It is the final story in the Journey of the Vixen fan fiction series and the last story to feature Maid Marian as a villain as she becomes the protagonist in the following story The Curse of Maid Marian. It is also the last story to feature Lady Blue chronologically because after Duel of the Vixens, she has a break from literature and returns in Red is the Torch, Blue is the Flame. Synopsis In the final part of Lady Blue's journey, the Vixen is right back at square one; Back in her home country. But the journey is not over yet; now she must fight for survival, both against Maid Marian, and against the black cat. Plot Following the events of Search for the Sword, Lady Blue recovers the Sword of Attilla and is finally taken home...At least, back home to England as the peacock takes her to the British county of Nottinghamshire to the legendary home of Robin Hood: Sherwood Forest. As excited as Lady Blue is however, the peacock warns her not to get too ''excited because at this point, she now has to fight for her life as the black cat is closing in and as she has recovered all but one component, the vixen is tasked with reclaiming the final component of the Doomsday Weapon and take them to a particular location where he will assemble the weapon and she will destroy it. The last component is actually in the hands of the black cat's agent Maid Marian who is ordered to come from Wales to Nottingham so the weapon can be assembled and potentially activated and as such when Marian arrives at Sherwood Forest, Lady Blue chases her to the city of Nottingham and loses her. The vixen intends to distract the figure by striking a wall down with the Sword of Attila and throwing a stone at the figure striking it at the back of her neck. But the force is not powerful enough so Lady Blue tries again this time getting the figure's attention and bringing the figure to light: Maid Marian. Now in Marian's eyes, the vixen brings her to a blacksmiths where she hides incredibly well waiting for Marian to blow her own cover. With her cover blown, Lady Blue kicks Excalibur out of Marian's hands and tries to grab it first but Marian grabs her ankle and trips her up. Excalibur now in Marian's hands, she points the point of the sword at Lady Blue's throat ordering her to get to her feet; the vixen however refuses to get up unless Marian takes her sword away from her throat to which Marian reluctantly agrees. At first, Lady Blue tries to get answers to where Marian was taking the sword but Marian refuses to answer resulting in a sword fight that escalates through Nottingham and to another country house where this time, Lady Blue loses. After Marian kicks her away from her after she tries to kill Marian, Lady Blue is sent flying into a table at a dining hall but unknowingly picks up a knife and throws it in Marian's direction. The knife that Lady Blue throws strikes Marian in the back causing her to die but before she dies, the blue vixen asks Marian the question that she had been asking for a long time: Where would the last component have gone? And finally she gets the answer: Nottingham Castle. Marian dies before she says that the weapon would also have been assembled at the castle; the vixen however doesn't care and runs away for Nottingham Castle. At Nottingham Castle, Lady Blue appears to see the White Peacock standing above all the components that she recovered: *The Trishula from Sri Lanka (Day of the Tiger) *The brahmastra from Pakistan (Operation Maharaja) *The Sword Kladenets from Russia (All Animals are Equal) *Aaron's Rod from Yemen which was actually given to her and the Staff of Moses from Egypt (Mirage of Arabia) However she does feel a sense of concern as the normally soft voice which the peacock spoke with when they first met in India and later when she had Maya Ali sent home to Yemen is now replaced with a more aggressive tone. Her suspicions are confirmed after the peacock roars: "You have confounded me, for the last time!" and with these words, the peacock flashes before Lady Blue's eyes to reveal: The black cat. Lady Blue tries to force the black cat not to activate the Doomsday Weapon but the black cat petrifies her when the vixen learns that she has effectively given the last component to the black cat as the latter disguised herself as someone she could trust. With the last component in her grasp, the cat activates the Doomsday weapon and Lady Blue can only look on in terror as Nottingham Castle is converted into the heart of the weapon; once it is over, the vixen comes to her senses and watches the black cat smile at her with a sense of malice. As the smile dies down, Lady Blue starts a slanging match against the black cat warning her that the weapon is not to be trifled with but an un-ruffled cat believes that she can handle the technology capably much to Lady Blue's doubts. And as the black cat flies into a rage, the blue vixen ridicules her but spends so long lampooning her that she misses the black cat talking about the red vixen at Bernwood, something of which sparks the interest of the black cat. The black cat's rage cools down and now turns to one of hysteria as she stops trying to kill Lady Blue and instead tries to persuade her to join her side with talk of the amount of power that she could have if she was to join the black cat; at first, Lady Blue is not convinced by the black cat and asks her how the universe would be improved if she was to join the cat: The cat explains that with the vixen by her side, she could become a goddess and even restart the Red-Blue fox feud of Bernwood Forest, this time with the blue foxes as the victors. And with the blue foxes as the victors, she could save the countless lives that both sides lost and could even bring back her mate, but this is not all as the black cat simply tells her to: "Think of it, vixen! What you could do with power like that!" Following a convincing enough speech from the black cat, Lady Blue undergoes a sense of indecision of what she wants to do (restore the blue foxes back to their days of glory) and what she has to do (destroy the Doomsday Weapon) and her choices are as follows: Domination with the black cat? Or total destruction of everything that ever existed? Five seconds later, Lady Blue gives the black cat an evasive answer stating that she is glad that she was born in England and thus learned the principle of "Power tends to corrupt. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.". Sick of her evasive response the black cat demands a simple yes or no response: Lady Blue's response is a no in spite of how much the black cat tries to tempt her but the vixen stands her ground stating that she will not join the cat in her "bizarre dreams of conquest." The cat tries to convince Lady Blue even further by showing her numerous planetary systems and with the weapon they could rule them all; but the vixen continues to stand her ground and says that whilst she hates Vixen she only wants to bully her not kill her. With this, the black cat seems to give up all hope and goes back to trying to kill Lady Blue. She is interrupted by another follower of the White peacock who demands an explanation: The cat states that she wants to restore Nottingham and England to their former glory but the vixen counters by asking if the weapon ever brought good to civilization: The weapon has never brought good to any civilization; only fear, Lady Blue then states that unless the weapon is destroyed it will be used for evil. The black cat tries to persuade Lady Blue once more by stating with the weapon they could control everything in the universe and could be goddesses. The follower tries to tell the cat that she is not fit to be a goddess but the cat doesn't listen and atomizes her hoping that with this follower out of the way, nothing can persuade Lady Blue to change sides. But the vixen stands her corner and destroys the Doomsday Weapon and indeed Nottingham Castle; but the weapon releases the first and last components for the two animals to use in battle. The foes flee to a Nottinghamshire graveyard where the black cat tries to convince Lady Blue that with the Doomsday Weapon she could have been free of grief, rage and pain but the vixen states "You might as well kill me!" and the pair fight with Lady Blue armed with the Trishula and the cat armed with Excalibur. Lightning shoots out of both weapons but the black cat wins when she knocks the Trishula out of the vixen's hands and indeed throws her off her feet and into a grave. With Lady Blue down, the cat prepares to strangle her and gives out an evil laugh in triumph as the vixen begins to suffocate and struggles to get the cat's iron grip off her throat. But the black cat holds her so close to her face that Lady Blue strikes, sinking her teeth into the black cat's neck like a vampire after she remembers back to a fight that she had with Vixen at Bernwood. Her attack causes the cat to scream in pain and release the vixen from her grip. Once released from the cat's grip, the vixen trips the cat up and tells her not to talk to her about absolute power because she has had her share of it and it has almost corrupted her inside; she also states that if she kept that priggish light she once held herself in, she never would have saved Maya Ali from drowning in the Arabian sea as she holds the point of her sword at the cat's throat. As the cat slowly gets to her feet, she arms herself with Excalibur and roars at the vixen to die. With these words, the vixen replies "Your wish is my command!" and a massive sword fight ensues heavily injuring both sides, as Lady Blue viciously attacks the cat she puts her out of action when she launches a devastating kangaroo style kick at the black cat's back; a downed black cat then asks "Who are what are you vixen? Tell me!" The vixen seems to have waited a long time for this question to be asked and replies something she said a long time ago in front of Vixen: "I am no common red fox used to brawling... I am Lady Blue!" The cat challenges the vixen to another duel where Lady Blue appears to retreat as she sheaths the Sword of Attila, takes her belt off and throws it away causing the cat to call her a coward. The vixen actually arms herself with a tree branch and attacks the cat with it, downing her. As the black cat is downed, she watches as the Sword of Attila vanishes and is replaced by the Trishula; the vixen uses the Trishula to kill the black cat, wiping her from existence and reducing her to ashes. As Lady Blue throws the trident away, she is confronted by the White peacock who intends to give her a reward like no other; but she refuses the reward at first when she hears the words of the black cat echoing in her ears: "I shall SWEEP AWAY THAT RED VIXEN AND HER IMPOTENT CHORUM OF ANIMALS!" First, she asks the peacock to send the red vixen and the other animals that were with her to a new home as Bernwood has been destroyed and the peacock obeys; sending the animals to Brampton Wood in Cambridgeshire. The peacock then returns to Lady Blue and intends to send her to a new home; but first he casts a spell on the vixen restoring her back to her normal animal form, nonetheless at the vixen's request: "You know what they say. All good things must come to an end; I've enjoyed this form, but in this world we have a principle: Four legs good. Two legs bad." The peacock was taken aback by this statement greatly for he had two legs; but Lady Blue just laughed and continued: "Or rather: Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. And whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend." putting the peacock at rest as she added: "But in this case; it is two legs good, four legs better." The vixen's final words to the peacock were: "Bring me back to my true form!" After some difficulty walking (because since being sent to Sri Lanka Lady Blue has been used to walking on ''two legs), the vixen slowly comes round and the peacock casts another spell on her sending her to the last location of her journey and a new home: Whippendell Wood in Hertfordshire. and the Journey of the Vixen series sequel, Red is the Torch, Blue is the Flame. This is also her home since Duel of the Vixens.|left]] Lady Blue's location in Hertfordshire and the red vixen's location in Cambridgeshire effectively means that the former rival vixens are now county neighbors (both live in neighboring counties), and it is here where the vixen feels like she can start all over again; a feeling increased when the peacock takes her to a fox pack comprised of twenty nine blue vixens. Her appearance also causes surprise among these vixens and a very different reaction to how she normally would see blue vixens or foxes: Some of these vixens welcome her and share great optimism of her joining them whilst others see her as a threat as she is originally from Oxfordshire and because of her Oxfordshirean upbringing see her as a trespasser, even reminding Lady Blue of herself when the red and blue foxes were at war. These vixens cause a very different reaction to how she would normally see blue vixens or foxes because she once believed that any blue vixen or fox is an ally. One of these blue vixens asks the vixen how she got into Hertfordshire to which she replies with: "Long story. I'll tell you all about it later." and as a last act of rehabilitation and proof that the priggish light she once held herself in has well and truly gone keeps her word as at night, the other blue vixens surround her either sitting in a circle or laying in a circle as she begins her story with the words "My story begins in Oxfordshire...." then Lady Blue proceeds to tell the whole story of the journey to the vixens: The Journey of the Vixen. Early draft In an early draft, this story would have been the only appearance of Maid Marian as an antagonist and her role was far minor while Sophia continued as the secondary antagonist for the whole series before dying at the hands of Lady Blue when she was fighting the black cat. This aspect was scrapped because of fears that the story may not have been as well written and because of this, Maid Marian was introduced as a villain in Mirage of Arabia as Lady Blue's new rival and also to give Marian the chance to be a far stronger character (though she starts off weak and gets stronger in The Curse of Maid Marian. It was also scrapped because of fears that the story would have been an anti-climax like how The Inquisition is considered an anti-climactic end for Captain Scarlet and also because of fears that the story would sway from the fantasy genre it had followed since Journey of the Vixen to becoming something like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.Category:Literature